The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67154 Message #1120710
Posted By: Joe Offer
21-Feb-04 - 06:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Old Johnny Bucker /Johnny Booker
Subject: ADD Version: Johnny Booker
Dodgyfolk or somebody else familiar with the UK versions, could you listen to the American version at Max Hunter (click) and tell us if it's the same tune?
I came across this page in the Bangj-L archive which gives an almost exact transcription of the Cousin Emmy recording. Glad I didn't take the time to transcribe it myself. The source said he got the lyrics from George Sprung's "Notebooks" - but couldn't cite the original source. I'd say it has to be directly from this recording by cousin Emmy.
JOHNNY BOOKER
(as sung by Cousin Emmy)
1
Asked Johnny Booker for a crock of salt,
He gimme half a bushel of his old mean jaw.
CHORUS
Do Johnny Booker oh do, do-me-do,
Do Johnny Booker, oh do. (twice)
2
Said a little man "I'm almost dead,
Hand me down my pone of bread,
Open the gate and I'll be gone,
Give me a stick and I'll trot on.
3
Said a little man came riding by,
Says, "Little man, your pigs'll die."
"If they die I'll eat their meat,
And send John Booker their head and feet."
4
Flour goes over the boilin' cloth
Water pours over the dam,
The old mean man with the red shirt on
Stole your Julie Ann.
5
Raccoon married the monkey's sister
Give her a hug and then he kissed her.
[added-not on recording]
Kissed so hard he raised a blister
Poor little monkey's sister
6
Old Johnny Booker was a mean old man,
Washed his face in a frying pan,
Combed his hair with a wagon wheel,
Died with a toothache in his heel.
Cousin Emmy recording from the Yazoo CD, The Story That the Crow Told Me